Mutants of America: Equal Rights
by Sadorkable
Summary: It is years after the defeat of the Foot. And even though the Kraang are still invading, they seem to be less of a challenge than ever before. The Turtles are bored, and wish once more to be part of the surface world. One night, April has an idea. She IS a politician, why not campaign for mutant rights? The result is a long, arduous process. Will the surface accept the mutants? AU
1. Part 1

Mutants of America: Equal Rights

_"All men are created equal."_

April sighed. Yes, she knew that. The solution to that problem had been started all the way back during the Civil War. The problem was that the Declaration of Independence only stated that all men were created equal. There was not a single word in any legal document anywhere that even mentioned mutants.

But that was what she was working towards. Mutant rights. It had been a long and hard process so far, and hopefully today would be the turning point. Maybe today she would be able to shed some light on the nature of mutants. Maybe, knowing a bit more about them, people would be more willing to accept them.

She could only hope, for their sake.

* * *

Donatello nervously checked over his equipment for what was probably the hundredth time. This broadcast was extremely important, and he didn't want to ruin it with a price of malfunctioning hardware. It also helped keep his nerves down as an added bonus.

It was interesting how each member of his family relieved their stress. Master Splinter was meditating, of course, while Leo had gone on a Space Heroes binge. Raph was alternating between knocking the stuffing out of a practically dead practice dummy and texting Casey on his T-Phone. Mikey couldn't seem to decide between cooking up a storm and pulling pranks on everyone (Master Splinter included, surprisingly enough.)

What about him? Well, he was working. His mind was racing, finding and analyzing every possible problem and every possible outcome. He had checked the setup hundreds of times, arranging and rearranging everything many times over.

Especially the wall behind the camera.

There couldn't be too much stuff there, or people would assume they stole it. At the same time, there had to be SOMETHING there, or else people would assume they had something to hide.

April had assured him it looked like a normal wall. Adding pictures of him with their human friends was a genius idea, she had said. He had blushed at the praise, but it still wasn't enough to calm the typhoon of butterflies swirling beneath his plastron.

He glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes left. Twenty minutes to the event that would change his and his families' lives forever. Whether that change would be good or bad, he didn't know.

All he could do was hope for the best.

* * *

April shifted nervously in her plush seat. She was extremely worried. What if she asked the wrong thing? What if she said something to make people hate mutants even more than they did already? What if-

"Hey, Red. You ok?" She glanced over to where Casey sat beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. "Just nervous. So many things could go wrong! I'm not sure I'm the right one to do this."

Casey gave her a reassuring smile, laying a hand on her shoulder. "I know what you mean. I'm nervous, too. And it's not me I'm nervous for. It's them. Their whole lives are going to change now, whether we like it or not.

But we can't stop now. We've worked hard on this for _years_ now. Besides, just imagine what they'll be able to do. Just think of the possibilities they'll now have open!"

April sighed and looked away. "I know. And I want this for them just as much as you do. I just wish that people would accept them already. I wish..." She trailed off with another sigh.

"We're live in one minute!"

April sat up straight. There was nothing else she could do at the moment aside from giving people more information. It was up to them to decide whether to let mutants into society or not.

"Hey, Red." April turned to face Casey again, wondering what he wanted less than a minute before they were live.

"You sure this fancy suit doesn't make me look like a dork?" he asked, pulling on his tie. April laughed and straightened it for him again.

"No, you look fine."

"Good," Casey said, relieved. "I'd hate to look stupid in front of the entire country."

April smirked. "Casey, you forgot about the internet. You'd look stupid in front of the entire _world_." She laughed as his face paled.

"Well, I'm very glad I don't look stupid, then," he joked. April gave another small laugh and turned once again to face the host.

The second hand hit the 12 mark. This was it. The deciding moment. What would the outcome be? Good or bad?

_Oh, how she hoped everything would work out..._

* * *

A/N: Yo, shellheads! As suggested by the wonderful Andrea O'Down, I'm combining the first three parts into a longer chapter! (I also edited a bit.) Sorry for the inconvenience!

Also, one last question, and it's a doozy. Apritello or Capril? I personally am more of a fan of Apritello, but I feel that this story is leaning towards Capril. What do you think?


	2. Part 2

"Thank you, George. I am here with Mutant Rights Activists April O'Neil and Casey Jones. What we have today is going to be a special on the nature of mutants, featuring a few of these beings themselves. But before we introduce our _special_ guests, let's ask a few questions. First of all: Miss O'Neil, you have been researching the nature of mutants and how they come to be. Can you explain some of what you've found to us?"

April cleared her throat. "Well, I still don't understand half of it. Donnie will be able to answer your question more fully once he comes on, but here's how I understand it.

Mutants are a sort of mix of two DNAs. For whatever reason, the mutagen your body comes in contact with takes your DNA and another's and combines it. My guess on the reason the results are so varied is because the mutagen combines it in the best possible way. There are some combinations that would result in instant death, the body wouldn't be able to support itself. So the mutagen makes sure that doesn't happen."

The hostess looked surprised. "That doesn't seem possible! It can't be terrestrial."

"That's because it's not." Casey spoke up. "You remember the alien invasions we've had over the years?" She nodded. "Well, the mutagen comes from the invading aliens. They're called the Kraang, and were going to use it to terraform the planet into something they can live on."

Suddenly April's T-Phone rang. It was Donnie. "Hello?"

_"Hey, April. Are you nearly ready yet? I've finally got everyone situated."_

April laughed. She remembered how jumpy Mikey had been that morning. Of course he'd be nearly impossible to settle down. "Yeah, I think we're ready," she answered, glancing over at the hostess, who nodded back. She pressed a button underneath the desk and the television behind them flickered to life.

"Whoa, is it working?" Mikey's face was close up to the screen. April held in a giggle as she saw his amazed expression.

"Of course it's working, dimwit!" That was Raph. A hand grabbed Mikey's shoulder and pulled him back. "Now stay back. You're going to scare everyone." Mikey stuck out his tongue and sat on the bench up against Donnie's carefully arranged wall.

"Guys, just please don't touch anything. This setup took hours to perfect." Donnie moved into the picture, holding some sort of device. "Everything working on your end, April?"

"You're just a tad bit quiet."

"Okay. give me just a second." He fiddled with something on his device and tried again. "That any better?"

"Yeah." April smiled. "I don't even know how you this stuff, Donnie."

He gave his little dorky laugh. "It's just a simple matter of-"

"Cut the geekiness, dork squad. I doubt we want everyone to die of boredom while you babble tech talk." Raph had sat on the right end of the bench beside Mikey.

The hostess cleared her throat. "So, um, would you please introduce yourselves?"

"Oh, right." Donnie said. "Oldest to youngest?"

Leo, who was seated beside Mikey in the middle of the bench, nodded. Donnie sat on the left end of the bench, ready to get up if anything went wrong.

"My name's Leonardo. You can call me Leo, though."

"Raph. Short for Raphael."

"I'm Donatello. I prefer to be called Donnie."

Mikey sat up straight, a grin on his face. "And I'm Michelangelo! But everybody calls me Mikey. 'Cause it's much easier to say."

The hostess nodded. "So, you're turtle mutants?"

Donnie nodded. "Yes, turtle-human mutants."

April spoke up. "Donnie, we were just talking about the finer details of mutagen and how it works. Could you explain it a bit better?"

His eyes lit up in that excited way whenever someone got him talking about sciencey stuff. "Well, as far as I understand it, it's a type of bonding agent. Because it's from a different dimension, I still haven't worked out that much, but I do sort of understand how the mutation works. When someone is touched by mutagen, it immediately gets absorbed into their bloodstream. Nearly instantly, it's spread around in equal amounts in all parts of their body.

Before I explain the next part, you have to understand something. Everything you touch leaves a trace amount of the object on your skin. Once the mutagen is equally distributed throughout your body, it goes to you skin and searches for those small amounts of residue. It then takes those, compares them, and uses the freshest. So, in other words, whatever organism you had touched last would be the one you would mutate into."

"So, you guys touched turtles before getting hit with the mutagen?" queried the hostess.

"No, actually." Leo spoke up. "We've been turtles our entire lives. We were touched by humans before getting mutated."

Casey leaned forward. "Not that that should lower anybody's thoughts on you. I mean, you're just as smart as the rest of us. Smarter, in Donnie's case. Sometimes I can't understand half the things he says." Donnie blushed faintly but continued.

"That's about the extent of things I've discovered. The rest of the results of my research consists of facts I've used in developing a retromutagen."

The hostess' eyebrows shot up. "You've been developing a retromutagen?" It was a concept scientists had been researching for years now, after the existence of mutants became more widely known.

"Yeah, but I've only been successful once. And unfortunately I wasn't able to save any samples from that batch. I've been working on it, though."

The hostess glanced around at the other three turtles. "You three have been rather quiet."

Raph scoffed. "Yeah. Donnie's the brainiac. We couldn't explain things half as well as he just did."

"Well, why don't we ask a question that all of you can answer. What would you do if the Mutants act was passed?"

"I know, I know!" Mikey raised his hand. "I would become a professional skateboarder! No, I would get a job at a cute animal shelter so I could play with cats all day! Wait, no! I would open a totally awesome restaurant!" Mikey held his curled fists close to his face. "Ooohhh... There's too many good things to choose from!"

Casey laughed. "Well, you can't do all of them at once, Mikey. You might get cat hair in your pizzas. What about you, Donnie?"

"I know I want to work with a group of scientists. I'm not sure who, though. Maybe if I knew who was researching retromutagen I could join them." He looked to Leo.

"Oh, me? Um, I don't quite know. Maybe open a dojo to teach people self-defense? Either that or become an actor. What about you, Raph?"

Raph thought for a minute. "I don't really know. I haven't really thought about it until the past couple of months. I didn't have the options as a kid, and recently I haven't really known what to think. I have been toying with the idea of going into law enforcement, though."

One of the cameramen cleared his throat.

"I guess that's all we have time for today," concluded the hostess. "We will be doing a special on the nature of mutants all week long, so continue to tune in!"

The TV flickered off and people started moving around. April sighed and stood up. Hopefully that cleared up some confusion. And hopefully people were pacified by Mikey's innocence. He did seem to have that effect on people.

This was going to be a long week...

* * *

A/N: Finally back! This part's a tad bit longer, and I hope they'll continue to lengthen!

And also, if you have time, go check out Here to Stay by Life-without-L0ve! ( s/10584561/1/Here-to-Stay) I found this amazing story during my absence, and _highly_ recommend it to you all, especially if you like the ideas presented in here! It's about the Turtles and their lives if the Mutants of America act was passed.


End file.
